We just love open top double decker tour buses, and have hopped on a few of these in most of the big cities we have visited. I have even done the one in Bristol! LOL. We decided that as we did not know NYC and that it was huge and also we had no one to show us, we would spend at least one day on the buses. We have always found them to be informative and it kinda gives you a whistle stop tour of the city you're visiting, allowing hops on and off and it runs all day etc etc. In the end we got a 48 hour pass, which allowed us on all routes, Uptown to the Bronx, Downtown to the Battery Park and Staten Island Ferry, and Brooklyn, which also included the night loop- tour to Brooklyn.
We were slightly mis sold the tours, were told we could hop on and off til 10pm, which was not correct, in order to find a stop for the buses, we had to look for bus stops with the Gray Line bus on it, this too was inaccurate. We had all these niggles sorted on the 2nd day, and managed to talk to a manager to voice our complaints. He was very apologetic, tried to make things right for us, and we were placated but felt slightly cheated by the whole thing. Tour guides were spouting loads of interesting information about architecture, a bit of history, anecdotes about the entertainment world, where the stars lived and where movies and television series were filmed. I must say, I switched off a bit when they talked about the celebrities, it's not something Dave and I are interested in....being told which building Spiderman was in when he was bitten by the spider was crazy, it's fiction, a comic strip and not in the least real!!! Not all the tour guides did this which made it better for us. Most would tell us something about themselves, where they grew up, they talked about their families and neighbourhoods. Trying to make it real I guess, inter spaced with celebrity talk. All a bit weird. The calibre of the different guides were questionable, some openly touting for tips, stating that the tips were their pay. I found this a bit rich considering I had just handed over nearly 200USD for the tours. The buses were always packed, so who was getting that fare? One guy was so bold to suggest how much we were to tip... USD30-50, and if we didn't feel to do so, please contact head office to state why!!! I think he meant it as a joke, but did he????
OK, enuf moaning for a bit.. the weather was glorious, it was dry, very pleasantly cool, the trees were bursting into life and I felt like I had come home LOL. We spent the first 3-4 hours with our necks craned, looking up at all the skyscrapers, and tall buildings, it seemed never ending, and all beautifully finished, the older buildings with hand carved stonework. The cast iron columns that made up the first pre fab buildings of the city were beautiful too, despite having high maintenance, ensuring the rust was kept at bay and not staining the walls. A British artist had installed his clay naked men on top of buildings in Midtown, bringing back memories for me as I'd seen them in London only 2 years ago . There was one on top of the Flat Iron building. He has installed 31 of these sculptures on top of other buildings in NYC and they will be there til August. I knew about Antony Gormley's work and asked the tour guide about them... he said, they've been here for years, more than 20.... I let this pass and and then thought to myself, whether these so called tour guides really did know anything about their beautiful city, or was it just all make believe, had I stepped into Disneyland by mistake???
The buildings..... The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, The Rock, 3 of the most famous sky scrapers I think, all very beautiful. We had planned to go up the ESB, but at the last minute, the kids decided they didn't want to go.. this was on the day we had travelled in earlier before the queues got too bad. As luck would have it, trains were delayed, and as we got into Penn Station, the train stopped and we waited, and waited and waited, there was a signalling problem, staff were at ground level trying to sort it out, trains were seen leaving but we could not proceed. The staff aboard the train was very apologetic and kept us informed about what was happening. All in all I think we waited for about 45 mins, making the usual 40 minute journey a 1 hour and 25 min journey. Passengers were making calls, explaining where they were, one young man got irate, started pacing up and down the train, saying how much longer, why are trains leaving but we are stuck. He was very unsettled, muttering to himself with a slightly crazed look in his eye. M and J just looked at us, and we smiled back, trying to reassure them. Towards the end of the wait, we were told that NYC police were on board to help calm the situation! It was all calm apart from this one disturbed individual, I guess it was reassuring for the rest of the passengers. After this long wait, the M and J decided that they did not really want queue to go up the buildings.
There were also some interesting sculptures, metal ones, in red dotted around the city, mainly in front of some important buildings I guess, but none of the guides said anything about them. I will post some of the pics here. We saw a lot of interesting artwork, graffiti being one, but alas did not venture into MOMA, will have to save that for the next trip. We did not do many of the museums but did do the Natural History Museum. The native American rooms were great, and as Mitch had just been studying about the Canadian natives, it brought it to life for him, life sized totem poles and weapons and other artifacts that he had been reading about and doing a project on.
We did hop on and off the buses and even did the night loop to Brooklyn, the weather was warm but as the sun disappeared over the horizon, the temperature fell and it got quite chilly on top of open bus! We braved the cold and it was a glorious view, of the Brooklyn Bridge, as we drove across the Manhattan Bridge, a double decker affair, with the rail travelling along under the road. Brooklyn's newer, had less tall buildings but nonetheless lovely architecture. Was lovely to see the NYC skyline looking on from the other side of the river. As we were travelling along, 2 young women in front of me started to eat some snacks, and were throwing their rubbish over the side of the bus. Self-righteous as I am, and I freely admit to it, I was appalled. they kept doing it, so I tapped on on her shoulder and said, give me your rubbish, I will dispose of it for you, I don't think she understood English very well, because she offered me the snacks! She probably thought I wanted some hahahahaha. She was eating monkey nuts and throwing the shells overboard, so I said, no thanks, I just want you to give me your rubbish, because I don't want you to litter the city!!!! She handed me the rubbish and promptly stopped eating hehehe. I am such a terror!
Time for a break, don't want to bore the pants of you now, do I?
